Wednesday, 21 November 2018

I'm sure this has been all over everyone's radars, but considering the fact that it's one of maybe 5 or so hardcore punk releases from 2018 that I've felt was worth my time (one of the others I released on my label), I actually feel compelled to do that thing where I tell you why it's worth your time too. City Hunter's first two tapes were fantastic, but this long awaited LP blows them the fuck away which is a move that is incredibly rare for both contemporary hardcore punk as well as for third installments in slasher series.

Deep Blood is the most relentless and brutal hardcore punk LP I've heard in quite some time, and I can't get enough of it. There is no pretense of political significance or corny tough guy bullshit or failed attempts at being "weird," there is only a vicious assault of cutting riffs, driven by pummeling drumming (these musicians are clearly metal musicians and it definitely pays off big time), and pierced by pitch shifted roars and howls from the mouth of fear itself. Musically, City Hunter draws heavily from 80s US hardcore punk bands who are known for being outrageously ripping such as YDI and Septic Death, combines that with hints of black and death metal akin to bands such as Beherit and Shub Niggurath, and then filters it all through a lens crafted by a band who you may have heard of called Misfits with their ruthless, thrashing, and truly criminally underrated (arguably one of the most underrated hardcore punk records of all time) Earth A.D. / Wolfs BloodLP -- go ahead and click the link and tell me that shit doesn't make Discharge sound like Buzzcocks (which funnily enough is how they got their sound in the first place). But I digress.

City Hunter's new LP is horror punk at its finest, and anyone who denies that is just afraid to admit how amazing horror punk can actually be. This will scare the pants off of you and remind you why you got into hardcore punk in the first place.